Diffusion in cells with stochastically gated gap junctions (Q2817437)

An interesting problem of diffusion of molecules along \(N\) cells, connected through \(N-1\) stochastically gated gap junctions where each gate switches between an open and closed state according to a two-state Markov process, is considered. The author calculates the effective permeability of the gap junction, and shows that the effective single-gate permeability has a nontrivial dependence on the number of cells. The steady-state solutions are analyzed. The considered problem is of huge importance due to the fact that gap junctions have been found in animal organs and tissues, in the central nervous system, etc.